Jos Hermens

Today's top athletes require the tough negotiating skills of agents. To many around the world, including Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Gabriela Szabo, and Nils Schumann, there is none more trustworthy than Dutchman Jos Hermens. Today, more than 120 athletes employ Hermens’s company, Global Sports Communications, to plot their careers.

Hermens does much more than negotiate financial deals for these athletes. "Jos had done everything for me, not only in running," says Gebrselassie, the two-time Olympic 10,000m champion. "He is doing everything. For example my brother was in [the] hospital in Holland. Jos is looking after him."

"I never see him as [a] manager," says Gebrselassie. "Always he looks like a brother or a father and son."

That kind of relationship breeds trust. "I have never asked about competition," Gebrselassie reports. "I say, ‘Jos, if you believe the competition is good for me I come.’ Always he listens to what I say. We trust each other. The other part is we love each other. Even when I will not be competing, we will be like family."

While some managers specialize in sports law or business management, Hermens is a fan first, exuding a genuine love for the sport and for his athletes. During championship competition, with so much riding on the line, Hermens can be found sitting in the stands like an expectant father about to witness the birth of a child. With his nerves frayed and the tension mounting, the media, with whom he has a very good relationship, knows to give him space.

First-Hand Knowledge

As a former world-class athlete—he was a 1976 Olympic 10,000m finalist and set a world record for the one-hour run the same year—Hermens understands the highs and lows of competition. It was his frustration as an athlete that led him into the career he has chosen.

"When I was 28 I got injured, and I couldn’t run. I had five operations on my Achilles tendons," Hermens remembers. "I was a teacher originally, and I wanted to stay in the sport. I wanted to coach. But of course it was impossible to become [a] full-time coach at the time. Then I started to work for Nike in Holland around 1979 and then later for Nike Europe [from] 1982 until 1985 and then Nike moved to Switzerland.

"Many athletes asked me to help: ‘Can you find a contract? Find a training place?’ I worked with a very nice group—Olympic gold medalists from sprinters to Seb Coe. In 1985 [I] started my company and had to work 80 hours a week. Then I hired someone else. Now we have grown to more than 15 people on the staff. We have two people in Mexico, two in Kenya, and another in Ethiopia working for us."

Managing the Miles

The experience Hermens gained as an athlete shapes the way he assists his young charges. Over-racing, he believes, is the worst possible trap that young athletes fall into.

"I think it’s the same on every level," he declares. "A lot of damage is done in U.S. colleges. I remember one of our Dutch athletes had to run 800m and 400m and sometimes the relay every weekend. It’s too much. Too much talent is lost from running too much. If you are young, 18 to 21, you think you can handle everything, but sooner or later it’s going to harm you. Someone has to help you draw the line. When the body starts to respond to over-racing, it is already too late.

"We try to limit our athletes to a maximum of 10 competitions for the whole year, give or take one.

"Haile and Kenenisa, they have beaten dozens of world records digging very deep. Both of them could have run more competitions but sooner or later you are going to damage your hormonal system. It is easier to repair tendons than to deal with a system depleted of hormones. I would rather have a mechanical problem than a hormonal problem."

During the Athens Olympics, few were aware that Gebrselassie was nursing a serious Achilles injury and didn’t want to run. Nevertheless, he appeared on the starting line and performed admirably despite the suffering he endured. Hermens was fuming.

"The federation wanted medals. Haile should not have even been running. He is injured and hasn’t been able to train," Hermens said angrily after watching Gebrselassie limp off the track after finishing a well-beaten fifth. "Well, I hope those guys are happy."

Holland Home

Four years ago, Hermens bought a three-story building in Nijmegen, Holland, which has become the company headquarters.

On the main floor are the staff offices. The upper two floors are dormitories and game rooms that can house up to 30 athletes. It serves as a base when athletes are competing on the European circuit. The game room includes a pool table, which gets a lot of use when the Kenyans and Ethiopians are on site.

The building is close to a forest where there are numerous trails as well as a training track. It is ideal for athletes. Among those in residence are athletes who are happy just to earn a few hundred dollars. Hermens admits that he doesn’t make any money off them.

"Who am I to deny them the chance to earn $500?" he asks. "To them, in their countries, that is a lot of money."

Asked why he doesn’t display more of a tough business stance, he thinks carefully.

"You can only drive one car at a time, and live in one house," he says. "When we make more money we just hire more people so we can do a better job.

"Our first decision is always looking at what is best for the athlete. We want them to have a long career, at least 10 years at the top. We want to keep them healthy and not over-race them, and at the same time [we] want [them] to love the sport and give a lot of publicity. We seldom say no for any interview [because we] feel it is important to promote the sport and our athletes. . . . We probably could have made more money, but it is difficult to draw the line."

Demons of Doping

Quite apart from the finances, every agent at some time or another must confront the demons of doping in sport. It would be foolish to think otherwise, considering how prevalent drugs have become. In 1991, two of Hermens’s prize athletes—world 100m champion Katrin Krabbe and 400m runner Grit Breur—tested positive for clenbuterol during out-of-competition testing while training in South Africa.

"Now I could probably handle it better. It was alarming at the time, especially with Katrin’s popularity in Germany," Hermens says. "I was not experienced dealing with the press. It was a very challenging period. I was with someone on the train to Cologne, I was going there to see the "B" sample analyzed. Someone sitting next to me on the train said ‘are they going to kill you?’ It was like it was the end of the world.

"On one hand it is doping. On the other hand you have a special relationship, and coming from East Germany, they are your friends. And even if your friend kills someone you would probably still want to visit him.

"I am against drugs, but you still want the truth. They are not doing it to be a bad person; it’s because they see others doing bad things, and there is the temptation. Then you are in the middle. You have the relationship with the press, and they are attacking you and the athletes and you have to protect the athletes, because they are still young people. OK, they make a mistake, but it’s no reason to kill them."

At the Athens Olympics Hermens had another brush with the media concerning one of his athletes, Francoise Mbango Etone. The Cameroonian had won her country’s first-ever Olympic medal, beating a Greek jumper and the favored Russian Tatyana Lebedeva in the triple jump. Within a day rumors were flying, suggesting that she had failed a doping test.

After consulting the IAAF and the International Olympic Committee, both of whom confirmed that there was absolutely no truth to the rumors, Hermens attacked the Greek television station that first reported the story. His comments were headline news in the local papers. To Hermens it was all in a day’s work.

Home in Holland

Hermens and his wife, Nanette, live in the village of Boekel about 30 kilometers from the company headquarters. They are expecting their third child in December—a sibling for Mayra, 3, and Joshua, 1. He says athletics is never discussed in the house since he wants to escape his responsibilities to his athlete family for the joys of his own family life.

For his athlete family, he is willing to assist wherever necessary in their lives. Occasionally his duties include such diverse tasks as shipping farm implements from Europe to Africa on behalf of enterprising athletes.

In September 2004, Hermens even sought out the best doctors for Gebrselassie and his friend, 2000 Olympic marathon champion Gezehegne Abera, in Helsinki. Abera is not even one of his clients. Hermens wanted, however, to ensure he was also in capable medical hands. With this kind of care, and his personal and professional priorities clearly in place, it seems likely that Global Sports Communications will continue to prosper and attract the best in the world.

Paul Gains was editor of the Olympic News Service during the 2004 Olympic Games. He is also a freelance writer whose work has been published around the world.